


We Could Be Kings

by orphan_account



Category: The Creatures | Cow Chop RPF
Genre: Fake Chop, M/M, Rival Gangs AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-02-08 15:39:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12867720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Aleks and James are leaders of rival gangs.They meet, fall in love, break up, and then they are forced to work together. The question isn't "Will they get back together?"; instead, it's "Will their crews kill them first?"





	1. Chapter the First

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a post I saw in the tumblr tag about James and Aleks being in rival gangs. I wrote this as a result: https://magnagloriousness.tumblr.com/post/165661514234/fake-chop-rival-gangs-au
> 
> Not everything in that post will be in this, but that's the headcanon I'm working off of.

Aleks is at some loud and noisy club when he meets the love of his life. For once, he’s there for fun. He and his crew have just gotten out of an unending series of kidnappings over the past three months. (One was supposed to be a quick in and out but lasted the entire three months, it overlapped with the other two kidnappings and three cases of blackmail they took- when it was finally over, Anna told him to lose her number and had him drop her off at LAX with only a carry-on. Trevor went to sleep and Aleks hasn’t seen him awake in over twenty hours. Before he left to drop Anna off, Aleks checked his breathing so he knows that Trevor’s still alive.)

But the adrenaline has more than worn off and Aleks just got the payment from Brett transferred to both Trevor’s and Anna’s preferred accounts. He is tired. He can feel it in his bone marrow. His eyes are heavy but fuck it, he really wants to drink and fuck and sleep. Drinking and fucking win out.

So he sits in a bar in some random part of LA- he really has no idea where he is. But the important part is that he doesn’t recognize anyone here and no one knows who he is. He’s in an alright bar- it straddles the middle ground between being so dirt cheap that there are broke and wanna-be small fries who could create issues with Aleks, but not so nice that he would run into the other “make-it-happen” criminals or any wealthy individuals who either have worked with Aleks and his crew or will work with Aleks and his crew. God, he doesn’t want to use that dumb accent anymore. He got it out of his speech for a reason.

He realizes he’s been staring into space for a solid twenty minutes when the bartender comes back and asks him if he wants a cab.

“No, I’m good.” He says and downs the rest of his drink. “Just tired.”

“Aren’t we all, brother, aren’t we all?” the man asks.

He reminds Aleks of Brett which in turn reminds Aleks that he’s probably not going to get as long of a vacation that he wants. Definitely not as long as Anna is going to want- if she comes back. Anna’s loyal but she deserves a break. They all deserve a break, but Aleks can’t do this without her or Trevor.

“That’s for sure,” Aleks says and scrubs at his face. “Wanna do me a solid?”

“Depends.” The bartender says. “What is it?”

“While I’ve been zoned out,” Aleks starts and the man snorts. “Anybody been checking me out? By chance?”

He just laughs. “I knew that’s why you were here instead of sleeping. You look a little rough man, but that fellow with the toque over there was watching your ass when you came in. His friends just ditched him for their own- ah, chosen partners for the night so you might be in luck.”

“Toque, you Canadian?” Aleks asks and slides him a tip. “Thanks, bro.”

The bartender nods, gives a little salute, and slides the tip into his pants in a practiced motion.

Aleks slips off his stool to find the man with the toque. Fucking Canadians.

The man with the beanie is in fact alone. He’s looking at his phone so the light illuminates him enough that Aleks can see that he’s getting himself into. He’s wearing those thick rim glasses that Aleks isn’t usually into, but work well enough with his face. The man looks up when Aleks sits down. He’s too cute for Aleks on his usual game, but he’ll do in a pinch.

“Hey, come here often?” Aleks says. He wants to keep it predictable so that the man knows exactly why he’s here.

“No,” the man startles out. He looks Aleks up and down and just kind of nods. Aleks is aware that he does not look his best, but really, his jeans and old hoodie are comfy. So the man’s stare can go fuck off.

“Me neither.” Aleks smiles his most charming smile. It’s the one that gets him the best deals and out of jail free, most of the time. The man looks intrigued, but in a reluctant way that Aleks knows he could make him even more interested given enough time and conversation. But he’s too tired for that right now.

“Wanna get out of here?” Aleks asks.

The man looks Aleks up and down. He sighs and finishes his drinks.

“Fine, but we’re going to mine.”

Aleks nods and follows the man out. They stand quietly and wait for the Uber that the man calls. Once settled in the car, Aleks reaches over and rests his hand on the man’s leg. He raises his eyebrows but doesn’t move Aleks’ hand.

“James,” he says.

“What?” Aleks asks.

“Since we’re getting friendly here,” the man gestures at Aleks’ hand on his leg. “My name is James.”

“Aleks.” He responds. James just nods.

James glances at their driver briefly before leaning in and stealing Aleks’ breath with a kiss.

He starts so harshly that Aleks can’t help but push back into it. James grabs his face and fucks his tongue in like they’re skipped everything else and are already naked. But god, that’s just what Aleks wants tonight. James looked softer in the bar, but when Aleks digs in his hands into his leg and into his back, all he feels are smooth, hard lines of muscle. God, that’s so nice.

The car rolls to a stop and James pulls away.

He gestures his head and Aleks gets out of his side of the car. He takes the brief moment offered to him and breathes in the LA air. It doesn’t clear his mind: there’s not enough sleep, too much alcohol, too much stress, and too much lust burning in his gut.

“Come on then,” James says as the Uber pulls away. He turns and walks towards the building and Aleks follows along.

James unlocks the door, he holds it open for Aleks and he slips in while he can. James locks the door. Aleks stares at James’ hands. They’re nice; long and slim fingers. Aleks tries to imagine them opening him up and James’ cock sliding into him, but he can’t. He tries to imagine it the other way around, but he can’t. Tries to picture his dick sliding into James’ pretty mouth. Tries to imagine sucking on James’ dick. Handjobs even.

He can’t.

He looks up and into James’ eyes with his cocked eyebrow. Aleks raises his hands in surrender.

“Look, I know we left the club with a certain understanding, but sometimes things change.” Aleks says and both of James’ eyebrows shoot up. “So I’ll just go.”

James laughs.

“Figures, the first guy I pick up in forever gets cold feet.” James flaps a hand at Aleks and he starts to walk away. “Have fun. Get yourself an Uber.”

Aleks frowns. This is actually worse than if James had gotten mad because if James had gotten upset, Aleks could have just yelled him down or fought him and that would’ve been the end of that. Now Aleks just feels bad.

“I mean, I guess we could just play some video games?” Aleks offers. James freezes in the doorway and squints his eyes.

“Video games?”

“Video games.” Aleks repeats.

“And what, pray tell,” James says and stalks closer. “Kind of video games do you like?”

“Um,” Aleks says, and he should not be this turned on and intimidated by James. He’s a legit fucking criminal badass. “Mostly FPS.”

James nods and beckons Aleks into another room. Aleks follows and sees the sleekest gaming set up he’s ever seen in his life.

“I know it’s not much-“ James begins.

“Are you kidding me?” Aleks exclaims and begins to thumb through the last decade of big-name titles. Aleks and his crew finally have steady work and he’s only just within the last month been able to afford to begin to catch up on some of the gaming shit he’s missed after spending five years playing only CS: GO.

“Come one, just pick one.” James says.

Aleks turns to look at him. Holy shit, he pulled the beanie off and he now has curls rolling untameably over his shoulders. Aleks is almost ready to fuck. He grabs a random game and tosses it to James.

They don’t fuck that night. They play maybe two, maybe three rounds of something where James hands Aleks’ ass to him. The world goes a little hazier and Aleks doesn’t realize they’ve stopped playing until he feels James get up to turn off the console and put the game away.

When Aleks protests, James shushes him. James comes back to the couch and fits himself against Aleks to make out again. Aleks isn’t as turned on as in the car because these kisses are soft and coaxing. James’ lips meander down his neck and back to his lips, but still, Aleks isn’t turned on. He’s too tired and James, James isn’t pushing it further. It’s nice.

James pulls back, and that’s when Aleks sees it. A terrifying softness in James’ eyes, and the heavy bags under his eyes. Huh, James is just as exhausted as Aleks is.

That night, they sleep in James’ bed. Twined around each other and in the morning, Aleks is convinced he’s imagined falling in love with a stranger. But then they have sex, and it’s slow and giggly and not perfect, but it’s long-term lover sex. That’s when Aleks realizes, he really has fallen in love with a stranger.

God damn.

It’s made even worse when James doesn’t kick him out and the second night comes. They sleep in the same bed, eat all their meals together, and have a lot of sex. It’s wonderful and terrifying in equal measure. They go out in public and discuss their comfort levels with PDA (almost nonexistent for both of them) and still have a great time. Aleks feels like he tripped and got married. But it’s good. It’s great.

The next two weeks are easily the best two weeks of Aleks’ life and they only serve to cement the fact that he’s pretty sure he’s fallen love with a stranger. Except James isn’t really a stranger anymore. Aleks knows enough now that he knows he’s going to miss James when he’s no longer around him 24/7.

Because after those two weeks, Aleks can no longer keep Brett feeling guilty and he has to gather his crew together for another job.

James walks in on a conversation that Aleks is having with Brett on the phone. The nosy asshole doesn’t walk away or give Aleks any privacy, instead, he sits on the couch and fucking watches as Aleks tries to argue his way into another week, another day of freedom.

He only gets a day to gather Anna and Trevor but Brett had flown off the rails when Aleks admitted that he didn’t know where Anna was and that he hadn’t seen Trevor in two weeks. Technically, Aleks has an hour to contact both of them and give them the news of a job. Hopefully, Anna isn’t somewhere remote but she has a fucked idea of fun and really she could be anywhere in the world.

“So, you have to go back to work?” James speaks up while Aleks is forlornly staring at his phone.

“Yeah, that was my boss.” Says Aleks.

“I was wondering.” James says and there’s no weight to his words.

“I’m a freelance contractor-“

“And your last job went a little long.” James interrupts. “I heard.”

“Don’t listen to other people’s conversations. It’s weird dude.” Aleks says and he leaves the room. Aleks doesn’t want to deal with this.

“Hey!” calls James. “We’re having a fucking conversation. Don’t walk away from me.”

Aleks keeps walking. James grabs his shoulder and yanks him back. James wraps his arms around Aleks and holds him in place with James’ chest pressing into Aleks’ back.

“At least give me your number before you walk out of my life.” James mumbles into Aleks’ neck. Aleks lets himself relax.

“I wasn’t going to walk out of your life,” says Aleks.

“Yeah, and how were you going to stay in touch without my number?” asks James.

“I know where you live, dumbass.”

“But I’m not here all the time.” James says. “I have another place.”

“Oh,” Aleks says.

“Yeah, oh.” James says. He lets go of Aleks and passes him a phone over his shoulder. “Since you’re the dumbass, put your number in so I can get in touch with you.”

Aleks does. He gets a text from an unknown number that reads “James : )”

And that’s how two weeks end. James mentions, off-hand, that he has more than one other place because he’s fucking loaded. It might be an unspoken offer for Aleks to quit his job and let James support him, but Aleks doesn’t push the subject. It’s too early in their- whatever this is, and Aleks is not comfortable with that much money. It doesn’t last. It’s just a number and he’s watched Trevor change the number too many times, too easy for him to ever trust in money.

With an exchange of numbers and a promise to text, they part ways. It would feel anti-climactic if James didn’t start texting Aleks before he even made it into the Lyft he called.

Before he gets home, he calls Trevor to get the whole process started. Which he regrets immediately.

“Sup man?” Trevor answers.

“Just checking to see if you’re alive man. It’s been a while-“ Aleks tries. He doesn’t get to bullshit much before he hears Trevor laughing.

"What? You finally wake up from your sex coma?" Trevor asks and Aleks just sputters.

"Yeah, I know about it. Tell me-" there's the sound of typing before Trevor continues. "Did you have fun with James, less than three?"

"What?" Aleks says. "I didn't type that- get out of my phone!"

"Too late," Trevor says. "James Less-Than-Three is now saved in your contacts as a favorite."

"Trevor!" Aleks snaps.

"What dude?" Trevor asks. "You didn't talk to me or Anna for two weeks. You're usually up our ass sooner so I wanted to make sure you were alive."

"I'll tell Anna I'm sorry for worrying her-" tries Aleks.

"And what about me? Will you apologize for worrying me?" asks Trevor.

"Yes, I am sorry. I should have reached out sooner."

"Okay, I forgive you." Trevor says. That was easy. "I don't think Anna will be as quick to forgive."

"Do you know where she is? We have a job because Brett is a lunatic who doesn't understand the meaning of a vacation." Aleks prompts.

"Yeah, I already messaged her." Trevor asks. "Do you have any info that you can share over the phone or are you gonna wait to five- no, four minutes that it will take for you to get here?"

"Gotta wait for it, my boy." Aleks says.

"Okay, I just sent Anna her flight information. She'll be at LAX in the afternoon tomorrow."

"Cool." Aleks says and hangs up.

When Aleks gets there, Trevor has become completely absorbed something on his laptops. He's either muttering to himself or on a call with a very quiet man.

Later that evening though, Trevor and Aleks are discussing the basics of the job in the kitchen and Aleks' phone goes off with a text from James.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Trevor asks and then he guzzles down a Redbull.

"Nope," Aleks says and then he texts James back.

"Cool. Have fun and be safe," says Trevor as he walks back to his room.

That's all with Trevor.

And when Aleks picks up Anna at the airport, she doesn't say anything specific about James. Just drops some cover up kits on his lap, she taps the green makeup with a fake nail.

"Green is the base coat to cover up red marks." Anna says like Aleks have never worn makeup in his life. (It was a job that they had to do, and Anna was the one to put it on but she explained the whole process to him as she did it. He may or may not have absorbed every word she said out of a fascination with the whole process.)

"Oh," Aleks says and he wishes he could wear scarves in LA without looking like a douche. "Thanks."

That's all Anna says.

They don't really say anything else. Aleks loves them.

Weeks pass, he and James get serious. Aleks knows that he is in love with James, but he's still lying about what his job is and it's eating up his insides. He almost wishes he could talk about this with his crew, but really, they don't need to know how fucked up he is over this. He's their leader and he has to at least appear like he's got his shit together

Instead, Aleks calls Brett. At 2:10 in the morning after the bar has just closed and James is out of town and Anna is busy infiltrating their next target and Trevor is keeping an eye on her and Aleks is alone.

Goddamn, he feels alone.

There's a fire clawing in his belly and Brett's phone seems like it just keeps ringing and ringing. The streets are crowded because all the bars are closed but Aleks slips through the people like water and he wishes it wasn't so easy to take a few wallets here and there.

"This better be an emergency," Brett opens with. "Or I'll make you experience an emergency."

"Do you always answer the phone with paranoia and threats?" Aleks quips. He has ten wallets now and he still feels lighter than air. James deserves better than this.

"Who's James?" Brett asks.

"My boyfriend," Aleks says and he follows this with a heavy sigh. "I love him a lot."

"And this is causing you misery? I want no part in this."

"I love him and I want him to love me," Aleks says. "But I keep lying to him."

"Hey now, honesty is the best policy!" calls a stranger over their shoulder as they walk the opposite direction.

"Hey now, fuck you!" Aleks calls back with passion.

"That was aggressive," says Brett. "I hope you're not calling me for advice because I don't have any for you."

"They deserved it." Aleks says. "I don't want advice. I want him to love me."

"Where is your crew? I think you need supervision right now."

"They're busy. You know, doing the job you gave us."

"Wow," says Brett. "Way to make it sound like I forced you to take a job that is right up your alley and will feed your sorry ass for another week."

There's a shuffle of fabric on the other end of the call and Aleks realizes that he's almost at the same bar that he met James at.

"Thanks for the talk! Gotta go bye!" Aleks says.

"What the f-" says Brett but Aleks cuts him off by hanging up.

It doesn't take much for Aleks to get an Uber to James' house. He's sitting in a stranger's car when Trevor calls him.

"Trevy!" Aleks greets.

"So Brett just called, he said he's a little worried about you," says Trevor. He gets right to the point. Aleks likes this about him.

"I like you," says Aleks.

"That's great, buddy. I like you too." Trevor says. "How much have you had to drink?"

"At least," Aleks begins and he splays out his fingers to count them. "Five but like two times. Maybe more."

"You mean ten. But dude. Ten what?"

"Everything." says Aleks.

"Awesome bud." Trevor says and Aleks can hear him typing over the phone. "Why are you going to James' place? Shouldn't you go home?"

"Because I love him."

"Cool. So you know he's not there right?" Trevor asks.

"Yes, but I will be there." Aleks says. Because if he's there, then James will have to be there. Eventually.

Eventually, Trevor hangs up when he doesn't get an answer that makes sense to anyone sober. Aleks thinks about calling him back, but he's made it to James' place so there's no point in talking to anyone who is not James.

Breaking into James' place is easy because Aleks has a key but he still cackles like he's a supervillain. Also, he already knows the alarm code, but he pretends that Q is giving him the numbers over an earpiece. Because Aleks is James Bond- except if Q is Trevor, then Anna is James Bond and Aleks is actually a very active and participating M.

Shit. But Dame Judi Dench though. Or maybe he's Moneypenny. Or he’s the backup James Bond. But like, one who kidnaps for money and not for the good of the country.

His James isn't there. Which Aleks already knew, but he's already drunk and upset. This just makes him more upset so he gets drunker. He grabs a bottle of liquor from James' cabinet- James doesn't really drink, he won't miss it.

Turns out, it is vodquila and Aleks' next memory is waking up at 7 in the morning with a mouth full of cotton and a head full of regret.

The light is too bright, but his phone is going off.

"Allo privet kak dela?" Aleks says. (Hello, how are you?)

"Oh good. You're still alive." Anna says and hangs up the phone.

Aleks makes a note that he should teach his crew more respect and then goes back to sleep.


	2. Notes for finishing this

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm not going to finish this. Here are my notes

Second Chapter

Nine months have passed since Aleks met James.

Aleks had never been happier. Anna like it because as she says, “You make us work less when you’re getting the ‘D’ on the regular.” Trevor likes it because as he says, “It’s so easy to annoy you, all I have to do is bring up wherever you guys went to bang last night.” (Neither of those things are true- Aleks is always calm, cool, and collected. He never overworks his crew out of desperation or lack of sex.)

Aleks keeps in touch with James as much as he can when he’s working, but sometimes they fight about how long it takes for Aleks to answer James’ texts. But Aleks likes to reason that he’s not being a bad boyfriend because even if he had a normal job, he still wouldn’t be able to keep up with James I-Only-Work-For-Fun-And-Only-Once-A-Month Wilson’s standards of freedom to text.

As far as fights go, that’s really it. That’s the only thing they seriously argue about. Because as Anna put it when Aleks was drunk and concerned one night- arguing comes as easily as breathing to Aleks and if he didn’t argue, then it would be because he didn’t care enough to fight about something little. Which Aleks thinks might be a harsh assessment of his personality, but still, it’s comforting enough.

That’s the way nine months goes.

It’s easy and it’s hard and it’s the best thing Aleks has ever had in his life. He sat Trevor and Anna down a few weeks ago and tried to talk to them about introducing them to James. Tried because Trevor laughed and starting reciting James’ recent browser history to the horror of both Aleks and Anna. Anna left the conversation at that point with her hands over her ears and the refrain of “I don’t need to know this about your sex life. I don’t need to know about your boyfriend’s fetishes.”

Later, Anna had placed her hand on Aleks’ arm as they were driving the victim of their latest kidnapping to a secure location.

 

Nine months (total) have passed and things seem great!! The crew knows and kind of approves- But then Aleks gets hurt and he goes to James after he’s been patched up. James is Not Happy

They fight and James tells Aleks he doesn’t have to work, but Aleks is like yes I do, money isn’t real-

The truth comes out about being a criminal and James just laughs it off cause he’s a criminal too

But Aleks flips out that James does this shit for fun while Aleks has had to do this to survive

They break up because of the lies and danger relating to their job (duh)- but Aleks also freaks out because James is a criminal for FUN while Aleks does it to survive (he’s not a good person, but at least he feels remorse)

Time passes

They get “introduced” through Brett at some gathering

 

Third Chapter

They have to work together- no real fighting, just coldness and a little hostility

Crew reacts- aggression, worry, and eventual matchmaking

Jakob and Trevor develop a spiritual bond, Anna and Aleks develop a matching one

Their jobs goes great, Aleks asks James if he wants to try again- cut to black

 

 

Aleks sits next to James and watches the way their crew interacts. Trevor is laughing a little hysterically with Jakob and Joe. Anna is directing what looks like a genuine smile at Asher while they grab drinks from the kitchen for everyone.

Aleks looks at James. His eyes are closed and he looks content. The kind of content that he used to look in the morning when they were first waking up and everything was slow and quiet. He looks tired, like the first night that they met. Aleks’ stomach twists. He decides in that moment that he doesn’t want to lose this.

“Hey James,” he says.

“Hey Aleks,” James says.

“How do you feel about starting over?”

James’ eyes slip open and he smiles at Aleks with blinding intensity.

End


End file.
